Plasmodiophorales
Source: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services - IPM Images
Plasmodiophoromycota - Plasmodiophorales
The Plasmodiophoromycota belong to the Rhizaria supergroup of organisms and are unrelated to the true fungi, animals or plants. They are often amoeba-like. The order Plasmodiophorales or Plasmodiophorida is also known as slime molds. Most are plant pathogens and mainly infect the roots. They live inside the infected cells, causing hypertrophy. The infections by some species results in deformed roots (clubroot), others form galls/scab and/or are important as vectors of plant viruses.
The infected cells produce a zoosporangium which cleaves into secondary zoospores. These can infect other cells and transform into a multinucleate plasmodium. The plasmodium produces resting spores which can survive in the environment for many years. Upon germination they form primary zoospores which are identical to the secondary zoospores and can again infect root cells.
The following genera and individual species are currently entered under this group:
